Press Release

SCHOOL CHILDREN TO PLANT ‘DEFENCE WOOD’ ON GLENLIVET ESTATE

27 October 2005

Members of the local community and children from local schools will join representatives from The Crown Estate and the Woodland Trust near Tomintoul on the Glenlivet estate in Morayshire to plant around 4,000 native trees, creating the 4-hectare ‘Defence Wood’, one of 33 ‘Trafalgar Woods’ throughout the UK. The wood will be named after the HMS Defence, one of the ships of the Trafalgar fleet, which was captained by a Scot, Captain George Hope.

Scotland has a strong maritime past and contributed significantly to the Battle of Trafalgar. Five of the 27 Captains of the fleet’s warships were Scottish. In addition, Scotland’s industry contributed through timber products, sails from Baxter’s of Dundee, iron cannons from Falkirk and, most importantly, crew members, with almost 30% of the 18,000-strong crew hailing from Scottish towns and fishing villages. Nelson’s doctor and the woman who embalmed his body were Scottish. In addition, children as young as ten years old served as crew during the battle – the youngest being a cabin boy from Leith, Edinburgh.

Andrew Wells, Countryside and Forestry Services Manager for The Crown Estate, said: “The Banffshire area has a long maritime history, with active ports to the north along the Moray coast. Many of the Scottish crewmembers who took part in the battle were from Morayshire, Banffshire and the wider north east of Scotland. This wood will be a fitting memorial to the north east’s maritime past, and it will be a lasting reminder of The Crown Estate’s commitment to the management and enhancement of native woodlands on the Glenlivet estate.”

28 Trafalgar crew members are known to have hailed from Morayshire and Banffshire, with a much larger number from the north east of Scotland. One known crew member was James Simpson, a yeoman of powder room, who was responsible for storing and dispersal of the powder for the guns on HMS Defence and was 48 years old at the time of Trafalgar. Please follow the link for the searchable crew database which can be found on the Tree For All website.

Trees played a vital role in the Battle of Trafalgar. The fleet of 27 war ships contained timber from around 50,000 oaks, representing roughly two million years of oak tree growth. Nelson himself acknowledged the importance of trees to the success of the British navy and, in 1803, wrote to Parliament calling for more trees to be planted to safeguard ship building timber supplies.

The Trafalgar Woods Project is part of a five-year campaign, run by the Woodland Trust, called ‘Tree For All’, which will see 12 million trees planted throughout the UK, with the direct involvement of up to one million children. The focus of the Trafalgar Woods Project is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Lord Nelson.

Woodlands of birch, rowan, gean, alder and Scots pine once covered much larger areas of upland Moray. Many have disappeared over the centuries as a consequence of human activity. The Defence Wood project, which is supported by the Forestry Commission through the Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme, will help to extend the area of native woodland on the estate, adding to the landscape and amenity of this beautiful part of Scotland, which is part of the Cairngorms National Park.